Massey
Ferguson
Bench Talk
Saturday 2nd October 2004
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May I start
by welcoming the players, officials and supporters of Massey
Ferguson this afternoon and hope that your visit will be
enjoyable, although forgive me if I am not too upset if the
points remain with us this week!
We have
continued to build on existing players and hope with the return
from holidays of other players that we will start to put
together a more settled line up. From a management point of
view our results have not always reflected our performances and
we have often fallen late on, when we deserved better. I can
ask for little more than the commitment players are showing
although results would be nice.
Over the last
few weeks we have enjoyed success in two cup competitions but
again returned to the harsh reality of the league. On Thursday
16th September we played West Mercia Police in the
National Police cup at Tally Ho!. This competition has allowed
us to play any West Midland police officer; this meant that we
could once again involve players such as Mark Bellingham, Jim
Conway who are both currently playing for Stourbridge and a new
face Tom Cudworth who is playing for Racing Club Warwick. The
team was very different from the regular team and clearly the
initial stages saw a tentative approach from the West Mids
team. In fact we fell behind early on when an uncharacteristic
pass by Jim Conway allowed their forward in who duly rammed the
ball into the net. This seemed to be the catalyst and what
followed was a competent display, in particular from Chris
Paintin and Tom Cudworth, whose passing and use of the ball
stood out. Up front Mark Bellingham and Richard Whitehouse gave
non-stop energetic displays, if only they passed to each other
we would be quid’s in. The resultant display led to the West
Mids scoring three goals, one each for Richard Whitehouse and
Mark Bellingham, rounded off by a towering header from Andy
McCord who once again impressed. Our next opponents in this
competition are Leicestershire who we play away on the 28th
September.
On Saturday
18th September we entertained Wilmcote Sports and
Social in the Challenge Cup. An impressive performance gave
much needed confidence to the team and again strong displays
from Andy McCord, Chris Paintin and Joe Brooks allowed us to
dominate the game from start to finish. Up front Tom Smith and
Dave Blake also ran Wilmcote into the ground, Tom Smith scoring
a welcome two goals and Dave Blake also getting on the score
sheet. Although this was opposition from a league below we gave
a solid performance and thoroughly deserved the victory.
The next game
saw us return to league action against Pilkington XXX, this game
witnessed the opening of the floodlights at their ground and on
a cool damp night it was a shame our team failed to turn in the
first half! Although the half-ended 3 – 0 to Pilkington XXX we
still had the chances to score goals and at least keep in
touch. The team suffered in selection from a number of absences
in particular the defence. On the morning of the game Mark
Langley came who has not started all season and Craig Jenkins
from the second team stepped up. The first half saw us have at
least 5 good chances to score in particular Richard Whitehouse
hitting the upright. It was clear the defence had initial
problems in coping with a strong forward line and midfield. At
half time we were able to re group, everyone came out and we
then dominated the game. The second half started well with Joe
Brooks scoring with a long range shot, but try as we might the
further goals failed to come. We could not fault again the
attitude and effort overall but we quickly have to realise that
the game lasts for 90 minutes and not 60, teams at this level
have the ability to hurt you and we are unfortunately finding
this out.
On Saturday
25th September we travelled to Coventry Marconi,
where we again faced a policeman playing against us in Tom
Thacker who had just transferred from Coventry Sphinx. We are
hoping today that this being the third Coventry team he does not
make to move to Massey in the hope of scoring against us. This
game saw the return of Richard Cox for his first game and the
introduction of Steve Clements, this together with Andy McCord
waking up after 20 minutes led to a solid performance at the
back against a strong team. We battled from the start and were
competitive throughout falling behind to what can only be
described as a dubious penalty. To our credit we came back and
stuck to the task before scoring shortly before half time with a
well taken goal by Tom Smith. After half time we again remained
competitive and gave as good as we got only to fall behind to
another sloppy goal. This led to the introduction of Mark
Delaney and Dayle Speed who is returning from injury. With yet
another commanding display from Dave Blake we continued to push
and deservedly got on level teams from a Mark Delaney block
buster. Just before he hit the shot we yelled from the dugout
for him to pass to the unmarked Stuart Evans but to our surprise
Mark Delaney found the top corner and all was forgiven. We
surely deserved something out of this game but as before we fell
to the sucker punch and one slip in the 18 yard box led to a
cross coming over and a goal for Coventry Marconi. This was
hard to bear for the team and there is no consolation in being
told we deserved something out of that game!
Today is
important to us, we need to maintain our attitude and play the
way we have done, the luck will change and I have no doubt that
we will turn the corner. I hope the game is enjoyable for all
and once again I make no apologies for hoping that the end
result is favourable.
Bob
Sutton
